Numerical Analysis and Experiment of Blumlein Nonlinear Transmission Line

Abstract

As the applicable area of pulsed power systems broadened, the research on pulse generator has been made actively. Nonlinear Transmission Line (NLTL) pulse generator, which is proposed in 1990s, has an advantage of high repetition, fast rising time and high voltage. It is a type of transmission line with nonlinear capacitor instead of common capacitor in L-C structure. Because of the property of dielectric material, the nonlinear capacitor changes its capacitance depending on an input voltage. The change in capacitance due to the voltage causes the change in phase velocity. And as step progresses, the rise time decreases due to the voltage increase in the leading edge. Blumlein transmission line has strong point that the output voltage equals to input voltage. In a single transmission line, it has the half voltage. It is examined in this paper whether it is possible to use Blumlein type NLTL for pulse sharpening. The study is divided into two parts; numerical analysis and experiment. As a result, Blumlein-NLTL is possible for pulse generator. It is expected to broaden the application area of pulsed power and generate the pulse with faster rising time by using it with the pulse-forming line.